Kolkata: Doctors protesting against the brutal rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital defied the 5 pm deadline set by the Supreme Court asking them to return to work and continued their sit-in that began on Tuesday (September 10).
A combined body of the junior doctors had begun a sit-in a day after the apex court asked them to rejoin work. The doctors said that they would continue with their protest till their demands are accepted.
The doctors walked in a rally to the Swasthya Bhaban – the health department’s administrative building in Kolkata – where they plan to sit in until their demands are met. Walking from the city’s Karunamoyee crossing, they chanted slogans of “we demand justice”.
Police has been deployed in large numbers at the government building.
A day ago at the Supreme Court, Bengal government counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, forwarded the Mamata Banerjee government’s claim that 23 patients have allegedly died as a result of the junior doctors’ strike. This claim is disputed by the doctors.
The Supreme Court additionally asked the doctors to return to work at 5 pm today, September 10. Junior doctors have asked the Mamata Banerjee government to accordingly heed their demands by 5 pm.
R.G. Kar notice
The R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital has meanwhile slapped a notice on 51 doctors over allegedly promoting a culture of threats, and endangering the democratic atmosphere of the institution. These doctors are barred from accessing the campus of the hospital.
The doctors were also asked to appear before an enquiry committee and “prove their innocence” tomorrow.
The notice has been made publicly available.
The list of doctors banned from RG Kar over participation in ‘threat culture’. Photo: X/@chhuti_is
Sandip Ghosh presented in person, sent to CBI custody
The Alipore special CBI court has meanwhile told the investigating agency that R.G. Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh and four others arrested in connection with the financial irregularities case will need to be presented in person at the court. The CBI had pleaded for them to appear virtually, reports said.
Ghosh was eventually sent to judicial custody till September 23 by the CBI court.
‘Festival’ speak
Meanwhile, chief minister Banerjee, in the line of fire after layers of severe corruption have been unveiled in the running of not just R.G. Kar but also the medical education system in the state, urged people to “return to the festival”.
“It’s been a month. A month and a day. I am requesting you to return to the [Durga] Puja, to return to the festival,” she said.
The request did not go down well with either the protesting doctors or the legions of people protesting almost every day across Bengal. Local media has quoted multiple doctors as having said that the question of celebrating a festival does not arise under the circumstances.
An intern at the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata was quoted as having said, “How can anyone with a sense of humanity suggest such a thing?”
The Durga Puja, which is Bengal’s biggest economic activity as well, begins on October 9.
In her address to the media, CM Banerjee also said that the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Vineet Goyal – understood to be close to the Trinamool Congress – had come to her multiple times, offering to resign. Goyal’s resignation has been a consistent demand of the protesters.
Banerjee said, however, that she had turned Goyal’s request down because of the upcoming Durga Puja. “You tell me, one who is responsible has to maintain the law and order, right?…You are saying everyone has to be transferred. I can fulfil all five demands but I can, at the same time, not fulfil even one,” she said.
This report is being updated as news breaks.
